Most home stagers, certainly those who Staging and Redesign (SAR) certified, will approach each staging project with the following steps:
- Preview the property
- Decide on the most appropriate target market
- stage for that likely demographic
- Make it pretty
- Have it photographed
- Move on with your marketing routine – blog, Houzz, social sharing sites, newsletter inclusion, Instagram, Squidoo, tumblr, whatever is your social media marketing cocktail.
However….your work is being wasted if you don’t tell the realtor/broker WHOM you’ve made the home for. If you don’t, how do you know if your concepts made it to the brochures and the MLS? Do you have your own Lifestyle Features Summary?
It’s just as much your responsibility to define the lifestyle in the home as it is for real estate photographers to always have a money shot. (Separate beef coming)
Backstory
I now write the home profiles for Jacksonville Magazine. Last week, I was asked to take that same voice to a narrative for a house sales brochure. Fun story – the house had been moved on a barge from one side of our city to another. That whole “did the earth move for you, honey?” “No, it was the house.” kinda thing. Seriously, on wheels to a barge then back on wheels going from an old orange grove to a prime spot on the Intracoastal Waterway. All good fun.
I was given the article from when the move took place in 1983, and then the feature sheet from the realtor. That the house has 3 air conditioning units with 5 zones is important, for sure, down here in NorthEast Florida, but it’s not part of the “story”. Nor will it be the factor that tips a family from lookers to buyers. The house had not been staged; the only lifestyle evident is the one the homeowners themselves have. Since they are now the sellers, we can consider that they are at the end of their chapter with this house, and that a re-set is in order for a new family to see possibilities.
Look at those standard Just Listed brochures –>
There are more places to tell the story than you might imagine. Yes, the move is more towards just great photos, i.e. less text, but for those who do read, you hope that they will fall in love from the brochure or at the very least, determine to see the property.
Not every stager is a writer, and really, that’s not what’s being asked of you. All the brochure person needs is a summary of your intent and decisions. They can spin the story from there.
I’m not sure what we’ll wind up calling that sheet at The Staging and Redesign Academy, yet. We have long taught lifestyle marketing but it wasn’t until we were working with a brochure person that we realized we don’t want our efforts wasted by lack of closing this loop.
So there are 2 areas we want to extend our home staging assistance: the MLS blurb and the brochure (admittedly more on higher end sales.)
Is it a Concept Sheet? A Lifestyle Features & Benefits Summary? What would you call it; what DO you call it if you already do this?
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